Stand in any street of Nairobi, whether in the CBD or in the residential estates, and you will certainly read idleness and desperation on the faces of the majority of people – most of them young people – who trooped into the city from their villages in search of unavailable jobs. And hey, as you stand there, hold fast your valuables (in fact, conceal them as much as you can) because the menace of youth unemployment has brought with it a surge of crime cases, lest you be relieved of them. Things are not different in Accra, Bamako, Casablanca, Cairo, Lagos, Johannesburg or Dar es Salaam. Every African country is grappling with this one problem; youth unemployment. However, there is one thing characterizes the countries; mass youth rural to urban migration. Back in the village where the soil is fertile, the land agricultural and the weather conducive, only the old men, women and toddlers are left. This has led to massive under-utilization of huge tracts of fertile land, land that, put into its optimal use can create gainful employment for millions of youth who are languishing in poverty in the cities.
Who are we to blame? The youth, of course, for being so obsessed with white collar jobs that they became blind to the great opportunities around them. Right? But am of a different opinion. You see, the youth are acting out of what they were programmed to think; that farming and other agricultural practices are the works of the uneducated and village never-do-wells. Agriculture to them means waking up at day break, grabbing a panga and a jembe and hurrying to your piece of land or driving your numerous greedy cattle to the fields for grazing, coming back home in the evening dead tired and weather beaten. The following day you do the same, and the next day, days without end; a boring and laborious routine. Certainly, that is just not what the youthful years of a human being are made for, and certainly not for those who have graduated with a degree certificate, even if the certificate is for an agricultural program.
I have for a long time believed that African governments have let their people down in so many ways, but key among them is the neglect (or the half-hearted investment) in the agricultural sector. If the governments are serious about dealing with youth unemployment in their territories, let them start giving agriculture sector a serious consideration. Let them then debunk the youth’s poor perception towards farming and other agricultural practices by investing in the new agricultural technology that has so well served many other countries around the world; and that, for sure is going to attract the attention of the massive unemployed youth who currently relate farming to laboring the whole day outdoors under the scorching sun. A case in point, when green houses first appeared in Kenya and the government, in a bid to encourage more people especially the youth to consider agriculture as a way of life, a lot of young people heeded the call and started small farms. The initiative was shortly after marred by massive corruption scandals and abandoned within no time, leaving the youth who had shown interest in farming through the green houses to themselves.
“Developing countries need to dramatically increase agricultural innovation and the use of technology by farmers, to eliminate poverty, meet the rising demand for food, and cope with the adverse effects of climate change.” – A World Bank report released on September 16 2019
But how should the governments go about this? First things first; in a world bank report released early this year, governments funding for agricultural research and development (R&D) in developing countries (where almost all African countries fall in) is a mere 0.52 percent compared to 3.25 percent by developed countries. Governments need to consider both public and private research and technology transfer in strengthening their overall innovation system. Re-purposing the current public support for agriculture offers a significant opportunity to revitalize public agricultural research systems, invest in agricultural higher education, and create the enabling conditions to leverage private sector R&D. The private sector, in turn, can stimulate more rapid access to new technologies for farmers. In developed countries, private companies contribute about half the total R&D spending targeting the needs of farmers, and as much as one-quarter in large emerging economies, such as China, India, and Brazil. Policy tools to encourage more private R&D in agriculture include reducing restrictions on market participation, encouraging competition, removing onerous regulations, and strengthening intellectual property rights.
“Boosting productivity in the agriculture sector can lead to more and better jobs. This requires comprehensive reform of domestic agricultural innovation systems, more effective public spending and the cultivation of inclusive agricultural value chains with an increased role for the private sector,” – Ceyla Pazarbasioglu World Bank Group Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions.
As I wrap up, I call upon African governments, starting with Kenya, to emulate the Israelis and the Dutch. Israel, the inventors of the modern plastic emitter drip irrigation, has invested so much in agricultural R&D and technology. Initially the country had so much working against it when it comes to agriculture: In addition to it being a desert, the land mass is way smaller compared to most of the African countries. However, today, thanks to a consistent and thoughtful investing and funding of innovative agricultural solutions, Israel is the world leader in many areas including dairy farming technology, exportation of fruits and vegetables, and corn. Today pesticides are sprayed using drones, and almost every activity in the extensive farms is done through automated machines. Netherlands, on the other hand, is no less a country in the sector of Agricultural Technology. From the invention of floating farms to recycling of waste into animal feeds, the Dutch have a lot to teach us. The country’s agricultural export in 2019 was a whooping 94.5 billion Euros, ranking second after the US. But how has all that come to be? Well, in 2019, the R&D (research and development) expenditure of Dutch companies (that have over 10 employees) increased by nearly 11%. Companies in the agricultural sector grew by around 19% (from €728 million to €864 million) marking a huge boost in productivity.